


Revelation

by Setcheti



Series: The Carson Diaries [21]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-20
Updated: 2015-02-20
Packaged: 2018-03-13 21:11:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3396473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setcheti/pseuds/Setcheti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My first thought was that it just couldn’t be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It took me too bloody long to figure it out. Some doctor I am.

Rodney hasn’t been improvin’ the way I’d expect him to. I’ve checked him over and over again and not found anythin’ that could be the problem, not one single bloody thing.

Until just a bit ago. I was fiddlin’ with the light controls and he made this little sound like he was uncomfortable, so I turned to make sure he was all right…and my hand slipped a bit on the knob I’d been fiddlin’ with, turnin’ it up quite a bit more than I’d intended. And that’s when I saw him wince. In his sleep, no less.

My first thought was that it just couldn’t be. He’d been failin’ to progress, not regainin’ his strength, it had to be that infernal machine that’d messed him up somehow, right? It couldn’t be so simple as him bein’ over-sensitized to the bloody EM field from the Ancients’ systems. Just the thought that I could have overlooked it for so long gave me this sinkin’ feelin’, and then I had it again when I realized that to find out for sure I was goin’ to have to hurt him on purpose…but I had to know. So I twisted the knob back the other way. And he winced again, and I yanked my hand away from the panel like it’d burned me.

Oh hell, all this time…it’s been the bloody buildin’s. Or rather, us bein’ inside with the power runnin’ through them. Atlantis’s power, that he’d been hooked into so intimately. The same power that’s givin’ this little buildin’ we’ve been stayin’ in water and air conditionin’ and lights and whatever that helpful little box is that keeps the food from rottin’ but isn’t cold, power that’s given us all the conveniences of home, or just about. That’s what’s been keepin’ him in constant pain, which in turn kept him from gettin’ better. The pain must just be wearin’ him down so much that he can’t even begin to come back.

So that means we’ll be movin’ tomorrow. Wraith or no wraith.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If he could have hummed the Gilligan’s Island theme song…well, he still wouldn’t have.

Rodney realized they were outside exactly three hours and twelve minutes after Carson moved them down to the beach. He realized this because Carson told him, and for once he’d been able to not only stay awake long enough to hear it all but he’d also been able to retain what he’d heard. The painful humming had lessened considerably, which he thought was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to him. It wasn’t entirely gone, but it was down to a level he could endure.

The next day, he realized that Carson was building a hut. This was so interesting that it kept him awake for several non-consecutive hours, watching. If he could have hummed the Gilligan’s Island theme song…well, he still wouldn’t have, because Carson was still having to do absolutely everything for him and you didn’t thank someone for becoming your personal nurse by annoying them. You also didn’t thank them by complaining, so when Carson started enacting daily torture sessions he called ‘physical therapy’ Rodney decided that lying was called for. Every time, Carson would ask if what he was doing was painful, and every time Rodney would respond by shaking his head.

This would have worked a lot better if it hadn’t started hurting so much that he couldn’t keep the tears back any more. Carson’s response was to frown and roll his eyes and call Rodney a bloody pain in the ass, and then he backed the physical therapy down to a more manageable level and started following each session up with a brief massage to smooth out whatever pain he hadn’t been able to avoid causing. And then Carson would go back to work on Gilligan’s hut again, or he would go catch some fish about ten feet away in the other direction, or he would sprawl out on a blanket in the shade and talk to Rodney about what they were going to do and about the shield he suspected was covering their little island because the Wraith on their regular flybys weren’t seeming to see the island at all. He just couldn’t figure out what was keeping the shield powered, and he was afraid that someday it could go out.

Finally one day Rodney couldn’t take the worrying anymore and dredged up a response for him. “Geothermal,” he rasped out, and then smiled and nodded when Carson sat up and stared at him. “Won’t…go out, unless the…planet does.”

Carson was still staring. “You’re positive?”

Rodney nodded again. “Yes.”

And that was when Carson all but jumped on him and hugged him so hard Rodney thought he felt his ribs creak. But he didn’t complain, even then.

Because Carson was crying, and there was no way Rodney was going to interrupt that for anything.    


End file.
